Hopeful New Year
http://www.larrylundstromministries.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=1622&view=post&articleid=65904&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
By Larry Lundstrom
On a cold December night in 1914, Thomas Edison's fireproof plant made of concrete and steel lit the skies of West Orange, New Jersey, and burned to the ground. Edison's 24-year old son, Charles, frantically searched for his father. When he found him, he was watching the fire. "My heart ached for him," said Charles. "Here he was, 67-years old, and everything he'd worked for was going up in flames. When he saw me he shouted, 'Charles, where's your mother? Find her! Bring her here! She'll never see anything like this as long as she lives.'" The next morning Thomas Edison looked at the smoldering ruins of his factory and said, "There's value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start all over again."
Hopeful New Year!
On a cold December night in 1914, Thomas Edison's fireproof plant made of concrete and steel lit the skies of West Orange, New Jersey, and burned to the ground. Edison's 24-year old son, Charles, frantically searched for his father. When he found him, he was watching the fire. "My heart ached for him," said Charles. "Here he was, 67-years old, and everything he'd worked for was going up in flames. When he saw me he shouted, 'Charles, where's your mother? Find her! Bring her here! She'll never see anything like this as long as she lives.'" The next morning Thomas Edison looked at the smoldering ruins of his factory and said, "There's value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start all over again."
This is a New Year, and it offers a promise of new beginnings. Let's take this time to start over again - look ahead to 2010 as a challenge and a hope. Louisa Tarkington wrote,
"I wish that there were some wonderful place,
Called the land of Beginning Again;
Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches
And all our poor, selfish grief
Could be dropped like a silly old coat at the door, and never put on again."
Gloria and I are thrilled to proclaim that there is really a land of Beginning Again! Jesus opened the way into this wonderful land over 2000 years ago. Millions have found this way and have entered that land of Beginning Again.
Almost 500 years before Christ was born, God spoke to Jeremiah through his defeated, discouraged people who were living as exiles under the heel of a powerful 
conqueror, "I know the plans I have for you - plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV)
No matter what setbacks, what mistakes, failures, or disasters life has served up to us in 2009, let's not look back. Let's lift up our heads, fix our eyes towards the future, place our hand in His nail-scarred hand and claim the hope-filled future God has planned for us!
- Larry http://www.larrylundstromministries.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=1622&url=10&view=post&articleid=80051&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
This is the 46th Mother's Day that Gloria and I are enjoying together. Gloria desires to always minister to our newsletter family with encouragement, inspiration and comfort but seldom is she mentioned or credited for all she does behind the scenes. I was recently reading about the wonderful godly woman that Proverbs 31 illustrates. I often tease Gloria and call her my "P-31" wife (and may I add, she truly is). This time, however, when I read Proverbs 31, I was challenged when I read verse 28 which states, "Her children rise up, and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her" (NKJV).
http://www.larrylundstromministries.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=1622&url=10&view=post&articleid=80053&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
I recently returned from Zimbabwe, Africa. I was honored and privileged to join Pastor John Brady and eight men from First Assembly of God in Minot, North Dakota, on an action-packed mission trip, February 28-March 11. I boarded the plane on February 28th in Phoenix, Arizona, thus beginning the long journey! From Phoenix, I went to Denver to Atlanta and then on to Johannesburg, South Africa (this flight overseas was 20 hours long). We changed planes in Johannesburg boarding South African Air which then delivered us to Harare, the capitol of Zimbabwe. Needless to say, after 11,000 miles crunched between two people for 20 hours, this big Swede needed to stretch out!
http://www.larrylundstromministries.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=1622&url=10&view=post&articleid=78651&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
In all reality, you cannot find a substitute for family! I'm a family man...we raised our three children, LaShawn, LaDawn and Donovan, "on the road." We were always an arm's length from each other living in a motor home for the better part of 16-18 years while they were with us.
